Hayling Island – Friday 9th October

I was looking at what I wrote on our first day home last year

“So here we are back at home.  It’s been a lovely drying morning to get the washing sorted!  I am now unpacked – not just living out of suitcases as we usually do when we come home during the summer, properly unpacked and bags back in the loft.  Muffin has had a lovely walk on the beach and Richard is busy mowing the lawn.  Back to being landlubbers again!!”

So all I can say is ditto!!

This is our beach.  We are only about 300 yards from the sea

So here are our statistics.  I’m sure you will find them boring but I always enjoy doing them and this year I’ve added some percentages too as we have had such a short summer.

	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010
Miles	337	820	553	773	718	950
Locks	178	486	494	369	594	674
Swing Bridges	20	37	38	91
Average miles per day	7.17	6.72	6.07	6.6	7.2	8.1
Average locks per day	3.35	3.98	5.42	3.2	6.2	5.7
Days	96 days	159 days	173 days	147 days	109 days	117 days
Days cruising	53 days	95 days	89 days	84 days	82 days	n/a
Days not cruising	15 days	26 days	19 days	31 days	12 days	n/a
Days boat left in marina	28 days	38 days	65 days	32 days	15 days
% days cruising	55%	60%	51%	57%	75%
% days not cruising	16%	16%	11%	21%	11%
% days when at home	29%	24%	38%	22%	14%

We have had a lovely summer – albeit a short one.  We had a great time with Ferndale and Festina Lente.  It was so nice to spend time with Ray and Diane again and have made new friends in Sue and Andy.  We look forward to meeting up with them again soon.  We have caught up with fellow bloggers who we hadn’t met before and some who we have.  We have also met up with family and friends.  We haven’t been far afield but we had never planned to go too far this year as I knew my Mother was far from well and I didn’t want to be that far away from her.

Mary H is about to have part two of her make-over – it’s the bathroom this time.  New shower and vanity unit and we are making it into a “jack and jill” bathroom to give us more room.  This year’s improvements have been a great success – my hob and oven are so much easier to us than the old cooker and I just love my freezer.  The cream work surface, cupboard doors and ceiling have made the boat so much lighter.

A quick update on Muffin’s training.  We took him to the beach this afternoon and he was swimming out for a stick and bringing it back – it looks as if the hard work might be beginning to pay off.

Muffin says to tell you that he has resurrected his blog and will be dipping in and out of writing it over the coming months - he does struggle with the typing and it takes him so long to write a post.  Keep any eye out for it - and Muffin makes four!

So that’s it folks from the crew of Mary H.  We have made our plans for next summer but who knows – something might come along to scupper them!!